CAPITOLA -- If you are a girl today under the age of 8, chances are your world is pink and sparkly and glittery, and rife with seductive role models of beautiful cartoon princesses. If you're a grown-up, you look at that world and may think, "Wasn't it always thus?"

But in her new book, "Cinderella Ate My Daughter," author Peggy Orenstein argues that "girlie-girl" culture aimed at preschool children has morphed into something much more all-consuming and aggressive than many former girls may remember from their youth.

"Girls are being encouraged to embrace this culture with an unprecedented amount of sophisticated marketing at a younger and younger age," said Orenstein, whose examination of the lives of young women began in 1994 with her book "Schoolgirls."

"When we talk about body issues and self-esteem issues, we used to be talking about girls at 12 or 13," said Orenstein who will appear at Capitola Book Café on Wednesday. "Now, we're talking about girls 5, 4, even 3 years old."

Pop culture that targets young girls with themes of glamour and beauty has been around at least since the birth of Barbie, more than 50 years ago. But in "Cinderella," Orenstein says that, since 2000, there has been a sea change in girlie-girl culture. It was then that Bratz dolls, Barbie's more provocatively dressed cousins, were first released.

But, even more important, said Orenstein, was Disney's decision to market its well-known animated movie princesses as entities apart from the film in which they starred, dramatically widening the availability of products featuring Ariel, Jasmine, Belle and Cinderella. As a result, revenue from the licensing of the princesses increased from $300 million in 2000 to $4 billion in 2009.

"Parenting is such a present-tense thing," said Orenstein, herself the mother of a young daughter. "When she's 3, you just don't think of her ever being 6, and when she's 6, you don't envision her as 13. So, you don't tend to connect the dots between what's being taught to her through these things at 3 and what that means for her when she's 13."

Orenstein's premise in "Cinderella" is that, though girlie-girl culture for very young girls is about selling innocence, it can lead gradually to sexualizing girls as they get older. Either way, it's promoting and supporting a culture of narcissism in children.

"You'll see the words sassy' and spoiled' associated with these products," she said. "And I asked my daughter once, Well, what does this word "sassy" mean?' And she kind of flipped her hair and shook her hips. Sassy' is another word for little-girl sexy."

Citing evidence that girls are wearing eyeliner and lip gloss at younger ages, Orenstein is making a gateway-drug argument, claiming pink princesses lead to young women defining themselves through their looks and sexual appeal to boys.

Online social media have created opportunities for girls to "brand" themselves to an invisible audience, and they often do that through sexual means, she said. "These are really public performances. And girls get the most positive feedback from being hot.' "

Orenstein said that she hopes her book becomes a kind of "Fast Food Nation" or "Omnivore's Dilemma" of girlie-girl culture. "Those were books that went after large industries that it was thought were impossible to go up against and make some meaningful change."

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peggy orenstein

author of: 'Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Frontlines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture'